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Paulson? Dave? Your ships have come in.

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His flagship fund, the Paulson Advantage Plus, was said to be down 11 percent for the year through September which can’t feel good, but today brought the news that he moved up over a dozen slots to clock in as the second wealthiest hedge fund manager in America, second only to George Soros. Also exciting is Tom Barrack making the list for the first year, meaning he maybe have the necessary cash to hire the cast of his favorite flick, Twilight, for a live action performance at this year’s Colony Capital holiday party, rather than just screening a bootleg version of the film. [FINalternatives]

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“I expect gold to double. At least to double,” says Adam Gold, a Brooklyn filmmaker, who’s at the East Village bar Arlo and Esme, mingling at a meet up event with fellow supporters of Texas congressman Ron Paul. Paul is a big fan of gold and believes ever since the U.S. went off the gold standard in the 1970s, the government has been able to print money “out of thin air,” eroding the value of the dollar. Adam Gold invests in the yellow metal through a broker, who holds it on the filmmaker’s behalf in vaults around the country. “I’m not yet to the point, although I may well get there, where I actually physically hold the gold in a safe in my apartment,” Gold says. Cris Rodriguez, on the other hand, does keep his gold nearby, at an undisclosed location. The 29-year-old NYU graduate, who works in music production, says every three months he scrapes together enough money to buy coins directly from gold dealers in Manhattan. “I don’t have a tremendous amount of money to invest but I’d rather start off as a base owning the physical gold,” Rodriguez says. [WNYC via DI]

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Back in July, BusinessWeek ran an article asking its audience, “Krugman or Paulson: Who You Gonna Bet On?” Krugman’s outlook on the economy was way too dark, the article suggested, forecasting a third depression, whereas Paulson’s was more evenhanded, noting that “we’re in the middle of a sustained recovery in the U.S.” and “the risk of a double dip is less than 10 percent.” The author stopped short of saying it, but, oh, Krugman knew what he was driving at. That the economist was a bearded fruit, Paulson, a “market wizard.” Today, deciding that sufficient time had passed to prove that you shoulda bet on the BF, Krugman sat down to his computer and banged out the closest approximation to an “in yo face!” that the Times will allow.

“Krugman or Paulson: Who You Gonna Bet On?” Sorry, can’t resist. That was the title of this Business Week article a few months ago. The tone made it pretty clear that if you had any sense, you’d ignore the bearded academic and go with the market wizard. So, how’s it going? I’m sure that if Paulson had proved right, there would be a followup article mocking yours truly. Wanna bet that there won’t be a piece saying that maybe professors know something that traders don’t?

*Big Swinging Academic.

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As you may know, in December 2008, when things were getting really fun on Wall Street and Ken Lewis was calling him in a fit of drunk tears to ask if it was too late to pull out of the whole BAC-MER thing, Hank Paulson was in Aspen was hitting the slopes. No big deal the former Treasury Secretary figured, telling Congress as much during his testimony in 2009.

Apparently he thought wrong and took a good amount of heat for the “me time.” But that was eons ago and while maybe we could understand bristling at the notion he was maxing and relaxing as the shit hit the fan while trying to hock his book, at this point, we figured he wouldn’t so much give a rat’s ass. Apparently such is not the case, as evidenced by this vehement denial that Hank was the Paulson who just bought an Aspen Lakes Ranch for $24.5 million, when in fact it was that other guy with the name last name. So, fuck hugh, hack reporters! (But confidential to JP, he will take an invite.)

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Paulson and Company has had a tough couplea months. The firm has been on the receiving end of a lot of shit, none of it really due but mostly thanks to a certain Frenchman and his blood-sucking overlords dragging the hedge fund’s name into the press and June didn’t go so amazingly as it relates to making money. But! There is some good news to report which that P&C’s assets under management only fell to to $30.9 billion, down from $33.1 billion, leaving investors with something to smile about.

“The redemptions are lower than I would have personally expected,” one fund of funds investor told Absolute Return. Another added that the the ABACUS crap is just noise, that the mud-slingers can suck it and that he’s stickin’ with JP. “We’ve tried to stay away from the gossip and just stick to the facts,” he said. “We’ve looked into the facts, and so far we’re comfortable with the fact pattern,” he said.

Nevertheless, someone seems to be a bit more panicked.

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In 2007, John Paulson’s hedge fund donated $15 million to the Center for Responsible Lending. The money was used “exclusively to provide legal assistance to people facing foreclosure to help them stay in their homes.” Charity, helping those less fortunate, etc is something rich people sometimes do, either to help their image or because they’re not total dicks and would like to give back. Representative Darrell Issa, the greatest mind Washington and Wall Street has ever seen, however, knows better. Oh, he’s got this Paulson guy’s number. Issa knows that this was not an act of kindness but rather yet another Machiavellian trick by Paulson to inflate the housing bubble as big as he could before popping that shit like he did to the 40 virgins you just know he’s got out back, and maniacally laughing his way to the bank.

You know what the American people also have a right to know? Starts with a ‘What a’ ends with a ’smug, intellectually dishonest little punk you are.’ Since we all know this is a baseless attempt to vilify hedge funds in general and Paulon & Co in particular, why don’t you back the shit off and devote the time saved to a more admirable pet cause, like personally going under cover to nail those patronizing prostitutes? Oh, you don’t know what I’m talking about? That’s funny, because I’ve got the tapes right here.

Congressman questions if Paulson helped charity to goose subprime bet [AR]

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John Paulson is racking up big gains in his Recovery Fund, the $2 billion vehicle that purchased the assets of the former IndyMac Bank. According to Paulson’s latest investor letter, the fund is up 17 percent for the quarter.

Here’s the returns in the firm’s other funds for Q1:

Credit Opportunities –  7.5 percent

Paulson Advantage – 0.8 percent

Merger Arb Fund – 4.4 percent

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He’s got this one covered. Letter to investors via Absolute Return.

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